1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to mobile phones, and more particularly to mobile phones with means for display of selected images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Transmission of a still or fixed image normally requires a relatively large bandwidth. The use of a visual calling person display is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,279 to Bierman et all., however, for which only a small amount of data need be transmitted to achieve a selected facial image. The Bierman patent makes use of data compression techniques to provide a centralised store of facial images retrievable on the basis of a calling party""s number.
Researchers at the University of Kent in Canterbury have reported development of a method of storage for facial images using a series of templates. The stored facial image may be recreated by means of an ordered compilation of the templates.
The capacity of memories available as components for telephone use continually increases and is accompanied by price reductions. The current trend is for memory to double in capacity over a three year period whilst a constant price is maintained. The transmission of data over the air interface is still restricted (e.g. to 9.6 Kbits per second for GSM) and the costs associated with data transmission are not expected to be reduced significantly.
The availability of higher capacity memory for use in mobile phones allows novel and more flexible use of data and in particular maximum use of data transmitted over-the-air.
It is an object of the present invention to provide means for simple provision of a variety of useful images at the user interface of a mobile phone.
It is another object of the invention to provide selected images on the display of a mobile phone by means of data transmitted over the air interface in small amounts and at relatively low data rates.
According to the present invention, there is provided a mobile telephone programmed to operate under the control of a CPU, and comprises an image display, a repertory of image templates stored in memory, and a processor for compiling said each image templates based on indicated order and coefficients to generate an image profile of selected image and for providing said selected image on said image display.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate examples of the present invention.